Israel, thank you for doing this! You know theirpeople suffered xenophobia back in the 1940s,so I guess they have zero tolerance for it. Aminister from South Africa was denied visa tovisit Israel for diplomatic work.Aljazeera reportsThe government of South Africa hasexpressed outrage after Israel's decisionto deny a visa to Higher EducationMinister Blade Nzimande. ClaysonMonyela, Deputy Director General ofDepartment of International Relationsand Cooperation, told Al Jazeera onThursday the Israeli government neededto offer a reason for the snubbing."We are taking it up through the properchannels. We need to receive a properexplanation for the denial of a visa to a sittingcabinet minister," Monyela said.The minister was scheduled to travel to theoccupied Palestinian territories from April 25-29.He was scheduled to secure furthercollaboration with the University ofJohannesburg and institutions in Palestine.Nzimande's spokesperson told local media thatthe denial of the visa had caused a "seriousdiplomatic problem".Naeem Jeenah, Director of Afro-Middle EastCentre, based in Johannesburg, described thesnubbing as "surprising" considering the twocountries' growing trade relations.Jeenah said the Palestinian solidarity movementin South Africa "would be thrilled" with Israel'sdecision "because South Africa now has torespond to this matter".Arthur Lenk, the Israeli ambassador in Pretoria,told Al Jazeera that South African officialsroutinely visit the West Bank through Israel.Lenk would not be drawn into discussing whyspecifically Nzimande's visa application wasdenied, though he described the minister asbeing "very vocal on a range of issuesconnected to Israel, South Africa and myregion".The ambassador said the decision to deny thevisa was made in Israel."The decision came from Jerusalem," Lenk said.Vocal critic of IsraelBut Jeenah said that anything the Israelis sayon the matter "could really only make thesituation worse".The Palestinian embassy in South Africadescribed the decision as "racist"."We take note by this aggressive action thatIsrael is trying to implement the same rule as inthe previous apartheid regime of South Africa,"the embassy said in a statement.The Palestinian lobby group Boycott Divestmentand Sanctions (BDS-South Africa) released astatement saying it's "more confident than everthat its time to expel the Israeli Ambassadorfrom South Africa"."Israel cannot want to tell us who our friendsshould be, where we should travel and who wecan speak with." BDS said.Nzimande has been a vocal critic of Israel. Hisspokesperson said on Thursday the ministerwould call on all higher education institutions tocut ties with their counterparts in Israel."We must just boycott Israel," Nkwanyanareportedly said.South Africa currently has full diplomaticrelations with Israel and recognises Israel withinthe borders demarcated by the United Nations(UN) in 1948.quote from Linda ikeji......